Friday Not-So-Random One

It's been a long time. A real long time. - Damien Jurado

The song Ohio by Damien Jurado has been running through my head for the past few days. I originally heard it on a mixtape ¹ given to me by a friend of mine, I think because I didn't know who the Mountain Goats were². It's an eclectic mix, but this song was one that really stood out.

It's a sad song. The first way this becomes apparent is the music, and especially the tempo. But there is also something haunting about the lyrics. I'm not precisely sure what it is that brings this out. I mean the story isn't exactly full of thrills, but there is something in the way that it is told that brings out the

It's a simple story, and I have come to like these sorts of stories a lot. Being away from America, I find one way to keep in touch is the stories told on This American Life³. They seem to collect just a piece of what it means to be living in America. It's similar to what Studs Turkel did with his oral histories. Sometimes the best way to learn about things is just to listen. The stories are also a lot of what I like about many of the Mountain Goats and Pedro the Lions' songs.

To return to the original song, there is something about the style of the song that gives it depth. It is possible to think of the lyrics as metaphorical, but except in the broader sense of all words being metaphors (and the horses passing⁴), most of them can be taken straightforwardly. I think it is this fact that gives it its depth: the fact that we can take this simple structure and add on to it and adapt it so that it fits in with our worldview. There is something allegorical about it.

To think about it more, below is a video for the song I found made by high school students. For those who didn't grow up nearby⁵, the city pictured here is Boston. One of the interesting things about the video is they adapt a lot of the song literally; some say too literally. Does this add to it? Detract? Judge for yourself.